Sep 11, 2026 · 46 min · 14 segments
In this episode, Adam and Amy look at recent news stories including the release of PISA data and the dissolution of the Athena trust following complaints about behaviour policies. They also take a…
Adam BoxerHostAmy ForresterHost
Okay, so the first news story, and this is, you know, we're recording on a Tuesday, so this is breaking today, which is about PISA.
It's run by the OECD, which is the UN body that looks at education and development and stuff like that.
So they take all of the countries, they test their students and they see how well they're doing.
And people may remember, you know, if you go back 10 years or so, People always talk about like Finland being like top of the tables and things like that.
For a long time, England was kind of very, very mid table and not doing particularly well.
And it's now in the top 10 for a whole bunch of stuff like reading, maths, science.
in the countries that are above england tend to be the ones in the far east now um so you know china and japan and think that kind of stuff it's a breaking story we haven't had a lot of time but
It's like 3 million people there and they've dedicated a huge amount of energy to education.
The interesting thing, of course, though, is not so every country gets a score, a point score, right? So you get like 500 points or whatever, and you can look at that score year on year.
And historically, I was always less interested in the rankings because like, who cares? I'm more interested in the scores.
Okay, so if you get 500 in year one and you get 510 in year two and 520 in year three, that's a cause to celebrate.
Okay, so the first news story, and this is, you know, we're recording on a Tuesday, so this is breaking today, which is about PISA.
It's run by the OECD, which is the UN body that looks at education and development and stuff like that.
So they take all of the countries, they test their students and they see how well they're doing.
And people may remember, you know, if you go back 10 years or so, People always talk about like Finland being like top of the tables and things like that.
For a long time, England was kind of very, very mid table and not doing particularly well.
And it's now in the top 10 for a whole bunch of stuff like reading, maths, science.
in the countries that are above england tend to be the ones in the far east now um so you know china and japan and think that kind of stuff it's a breaking story we haven't had a lot of time but
It's like 3 million people there and they've dedicated a huge amount of energy to education.
The interesting thing, of course, though, is not so every country gets a score, a point score, right? So you get like 500 points or whatever, and you can look at that score year on year.
And historically, I was always less interested in the rankings because like, who cares? I'm more interested in the scores.
Okay, so if you get 500 in year one and you get 510 in year two and 520 in year three, that's a cause to celebrate.
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